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How Books Are Organized

Agathos Books uses three different ways to organize books, and they’re easy to mix up. Each one is managed by a different person and serves a different purpose.

CategoriesCollectionsTags
Who manages themAgathos Books (automatic)Library adminsYou
ScopeEvery book on the platformOne libraryYour personal collection
ExamplesFiction, Theology, Biography”Pastor’s Picks”, “Kids Area""book-club-2025”, “gift-from-mom”
Where you see themBrowse page, library rails, filtersCollections strip on a library pageCollection filters, book detail
Can you create them?No — assigned automaticallyOnly library adminsYes — anyone, on your own books

Every book on Agathos Books is automatically classified into broad categories like Fiction, Theology, or Children’s based on its metadata. You don’t tag books yourself — categories are how the platform groups books for browsing and discovery.

Use categories to find books. See Browsing by category for details.

Collections are curated groupings inside a single library, like “Pastor’s Picks” or “Kids Area.” A library admin creates them and assigns books to them, and they show up on the library page so members can browse them at a glance.

Collections live in one library at a time — the same book can be in “Pastor’s Picks” at one library and not at another. See Browsing library collections for details.

Tags are your own personal labels on books in your collection. Only you see them, and you can use anything that’s useful — “book-club-2025”, “gift-from-grandma”, “to-donate”. They’re great for short-term tracking and personal organization.

See Using tags for details.

If you want to…Use
Discover books across the platform by topicCategories
See what a particular library has curatedCollections
Track your own reading, lists, or memoriesTags

If you’re not sure which feature applies to what you’re trying to do, contact support.